Jake is SO precious to me. i didn't care for him the first time i read homestuck but when i read it again late last year jake became one of my favourite characters. Grandpa Harley was a very neglectful parental figure and he was Strange about those blue ladies, and jake in early act 6 is just. Not that interesting to me. I simply Do Not Care for love triangles.

But then the post trickster pre game over bit happened and suddenly i Got what his deal was. Especially when he started crying in janes cell (my blorbos Should suffer more for my entertainment) He is a deeply repressed person who doesn't know who he is and is trying to fill the void (that is gender dysphoria. To me) by trying to be whatever his friends want him to be instead of who she wants to be (which is lara croft. Theres probably a cis reading of Jake with the same narrative value but i don't care that much about Narratively Significant Cisness unless you make a Really good case)

This also explains why the story is so incredibly mean to him post-retcon (for lack of a better word). The plot significance of the page of hope is gone when there's no areana to trigger a hopesplosion, and he doesnt value himself as a person enough to see his emotional significance as a friend, so he's just here for weird tea parties bc he doesn't have a purpose.

And then the epilogues happen and oh my GOD does the Jake stuff get good. The alcoholism stuff is Very well done (although not as good as in psycholonials. Read psycholonials its free on steam and the music is SO good) and Jake does indeed get reduced to a sexy lamp, but the way that happens is so interesting to me! The epilogues are so interesting about gender and dysphoria and the crushing realization that confirming to societies expectations can be Really Fucking Bad for you, and the Jake stuff is such a good example of that!! Read the candy!dance scene with john and Cry.

And then hs2 and beyond canon happen and the return of brain ghost dirk!!! And when he takes off his sunglasses and his eyes are green!!!! And the conversation with Jane on the ship where she talks about what she went through (I Support Womens Wrongs) and then Jake Tries And Fails To Kill Her!!!!! And Br8k!!!!!! This is where my analysis fails me and i just make noises at my screen to convey my excitement. Estrogen will save her. There is still time. If we werent spoiled that June would happen I would be convinced that the mystery woman silhouette would be Lara Harley (Candy!Jake would not remain crocker and also not go back to english and jade deserves all the sisters) I can't Wait to find out what's going on on the meatside after the VriskAddendum (or however well end up calling that)